Carson-Newman has turned into one of the most formidable offenses in the Southeast Region and the South Atlantic Conference. C-N leads the SAC in eight of 12 offensive categories: batting average, on-base percentage, RBI, slugging, runs, hits, doubles and triples.
On its win streak, the Eagles have scored at least eight runs on four occasions and have pounded out 10 hits or more in three of those contests.
However, it's also been the Eagles defense that has shined of late. C-N has allowed just three runs in its last 38 innings, including 28 consecutive scoreless innings from Saturday's doubleheader at Lenoir-Rhyne through game one of Wednesday's doubleheader with LMU.
In that stretch, Sarah Howard (Georgetown, Ky.) retired 24 straight batters without a base runner reaching between C-N's Monday games with Erskine and Wednesday's game one with LMU. To be clear, Howard didn't pitch a perfect game, she only finished off the final 13 batters of the Eagles' Monday decision with Erskine before retiring the first 11 she faced against LMU.
Howard, Lindsay Dean (Coeburn, Va.) and Danielle Kranz (Fairfield, Calif.) all rank 1-2-3 in the SAC's statistics for ERA. Howard leads the league with 1.50 ERA, Dean follows with 1.54 and Kranz rounds out the top three with a 1.68 earned run average.
C-N utility player Elayna Siebert (Knoxville, Tenn.) has tallied a 14-game hitting streak. Siebert is closing in on rarefied air - Sammi Hatcher holds the school record with hits in 33 straight games, Angel Bales is second with 25 in a row while Kelli Hensley is third with a 19-game hit streak.
Carson-Newman will have to work to counter Wingate's love of the home run. The Bulldogs hit 1.03 home runs per game, which is the 27th best tally in the country. Alexis Burrell leads the way with 10, putting her second in the SAC and 17th in the nation.
Stacey Houser leads the Wingate pitching staff. She has a SAC best 14 wins this season.
Wingate is the team that ended C-N's season last year, the Bulldogs bounced the Eagles from the SAC tournament 4-1.
Coverage of the contest will be available on the Wingate Sports Network with a free high definition stream available at wingatebulldogs.com.
